The Truth:
The oft-quoted Qur’anic verse “let there be no
compulsion in religion” (2:256)
takes a serious beating against the reality of Muhammad’s later years. The
prophet of Islam had no real power when this seemingly tolerant passage was
"revealed". Things were much different, however, by the time the ninth Sura
was recited, which explicitly calls for forcing others into prayer and paying
the jizya (9:29).
Examples from Muhammad’s life prove beyond a
reasonable doubt that he was not opposed to forcible conversions and even
ordered them once he had the military authority to do so,
Continuing the story of Abu Sufyan (see
Myth: Muhammad always Chose Peace over War), when the Meccan leader visited
the Muslim army camp in 630 in an attempt to convince Muhammad not to make war, he was
chased into their prophet's presence at the point of a sword. There he was
“invited” to embrace Islam:
[Muhammad] said, “Woe to you, Abu Sufyan,
isn’t it time that you recognize that I am Allah’s apostle?” He (Abu Sufyan)
answered, “As to that I still have some doubt.” I (the narrator) said to him,
“Submit and testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the
apostle of Allah before you lose your head,” so he did so. (Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham
814)
It is obvious that this "embrace" of Islam
was neither genuine nor volitional. Yet,
there was no admonishment from Muhammad. The prophet of Islam fully accepted the “conversion” and
immediately made use of Abu Sufyan to further his political goals. (Abu
Sufyan and his progeny had the last laugh, however, as they went on to inherit
the Muslim empire and murder the prophet's favorite grandchildren... but that is
a different story).
After he had conquered Mecca, Muhammad began
ordering the executions of those who had insulted him or apostatized. One
of these was his former scribe, Abdullah bin Sa’d, who transcribed Muhammad's
“revelations” from Allah, but lost his faith in the "prophet" when the latter adopted
suggested
editing (Allah’s word was supposed to be unalterable).
Abdullah saved himself by reverting back to Islam in Muhammad’s presence at
Mecca as the
prophet of Islam waited for someone to strike off his head:
The apostle remained silent for a long time
til finally he said ‘yes.’ When Uthman [and Abdullah] had left, he said to his
companions who were sitting around him, “I kept silent so that one of you might
get up and strike off his head!” One of the Ansar said, “Then why didn’t you
give me a sign, O apostle of Allah?” He answered that a prophet does not kill by
pointing. (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 819). Several poets were murdered by Muhammad at Mecca
for the crime of having mocked him. Another such poet, named Ka’b bin Zuhayr,
saved his own skin by converting to Islam after finding no other way to avoid
execution. (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 888-889).
The Hadith also records that many other Meccans converted to Islam under obvious
duress. As one apprehensive observer noted to Muhammad at the time:
(They embraced Islam because) they were defeated at your hands (and as such
their Islam is not dependable). (Sahih Muslim
4453) These sorts of conversions were fully recognized
by Muhammad, as proven by this hadith, in which he rebukes a soldier for killing
a person who had "converted" merely to save his life:
Allah's Apostle sent us towards Al-Huruqa, and
in the morning we attacked them and defeated them. I and an Ansari man followed
a man from among them and when we took him over, he said, "La ilaha illal-Lah." On hearing that, the Ansari man stopped, but I killed him by stabbing him with
my spear. When we returned, the Prophet came to know about that and he said, "O Usama! Did you kill him after he had said "La ilaha ilal-Lah?" I said, "But he
said so only to save himself." The Prophet kept on repeating that so often that
I wished I had not embraced Islam before that day. (Bukhari
59:568)
(Note that Muhammad was not in the least bit
concerned that the victims were slaughtered while fleeing the Muslim army.
This is
another strike against the myth that Muslims are only supposed to fight in
self-defense).
By this time Muhammad was spreading Islam by any means necessary. He
was even using captured wealth to buy loyalty:
Allah's Apostle gave (gifts) to some people to the exclusion of some others. The
latter seemed to be displeased by that. The Prophet said, "I give to some
people, lest they should deviate from True Faith” (Bukhari
53:373). Muhammad actually captured a man’s wife and children, then used them as
leverage to
force his conversion:
The apostle told them to tell Malik that if he came to him as a Muslim he would
return his family and property to him and give him a hundred camels. (Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham
879) Islam was being cheapened. It was no longer a religion, but rather a political
allegiance established by force. Muhammad sent one of his men to Yemen with a
military force, where a local pagan leader was told, “Testify that none has the
right to be worshipped except Allah, or else I will chop off your neck."
(Bukhari
59:643)
Neither was there any heartfelt religious conviction in the reluctant
“conversion” of the Thaqif tribe, for example:
[The Thaqif leaders said to one another] “We are in an impasse. You have seen
how the affair of this man [Muhammad] has progressed. All the Arabs have
accepted Islam and you lack the power to fight them… don’t you see that your
herds are not safe; none of you can go out without being cut off.” (Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham
915) Their solution was to “accept Islam,” and so they sent their
couriers to
Muhammad to announce their conversion, ask for a promise that they would no
longer by harassed by the Muslims, and request a grace period before they had to
'give up' their old religion:
The riders of Thaqif had come to make their submission and accept Islam on the
apostle’s conditions provided that they could get a document guaranteeing their
people and their land and animals… Among the things they asked the apostle was
that they should be allowed to retain their idol al-Lat undestroyed for three
years. The apostle refused, and they continued to ask him for a year or two and
he refused… (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 916) Obviously the Thaqif were not acting out of a true belief in Islam, but rather
from the desperation in which non-Muslims Arabs were finding themselves in the
wake of Muslim aggression. Muhammad had the power and he was directing his
armies to wipe out those who would not submit to Islam.
“Fight everyone in the way of Allah and kill those who disbelieve in Allah,”
were his instructions to one of his military leaders (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 992).
Muhammad also
congratulated a faraway king on accepting Islam and “killing the polytheists”
under his reign, even as he directed another military leader to “invite” a
neighboring tribe to Islam and then slaughter them if they refused:Then the apostle sent Khalid bin Walid… to the Banu al-Harith and ordered him to
invite them to Islam three days before he attacked them. If they accepted then
he was to accept it from them; and if they declined he was to fight them. (Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham 959)
Khalid’s famous pronouncement, “If you accept Islam then you will be safe,” is
echoed by Jihadists like Osama bin Laden to this day.
|
